Event Description:The Walnut Twig Beetle (WTB), Pityophthorus juglandis, the insect involved in Thousand Cankers Disease of Black Walnut (TCD), has been detected in Indiana for the first time at a Franklin County sawmill.

The beetle was detected in a trap placed at the sawmill for a 2014 statewide survey for WTB.

Additional WTBs were found during an inspection of walnut logs and lumber at the sawmill.

TCD is caused by the fungus Geosmithia morbida that is transmitted by WTB.

The beetles bore into walnut branches, feeding on the tree’s tissues and depositing the fungus that creates a canker, or dead area, under the bark. Multiple feedings cause the formation of thousands of cankers under the bark and destroy the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. Gradually the tree dies.

Tests for the fungus from the collected beetles and walnut samples in Franklin County are ongoing. So far, the fungus has not been detected.

Surveys at the sawmill have not detected any infested walnut trees. Another survey is planned for this summer for the area surrounding the sawmill.

State Entomologist Phil Marshall has ordered the sawmill quarantined. The sawmill is working with the DNR and is destroying walnut material on the property to prevent movement of TCD from the property.

In 2014, TCD was discovered in a black walnut plantation in Yellowwood State Forest in Brown County. That plantation has also been quarantined.

Franklin County is not under quarantine because TCD has not been detected in a walnut tree in the county.

Movement of walnut logs, lumber and other walnut material within Indiana is not restricted. Movement into and out of Indiana is restricted.

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